His political opposite and predecessor, the conservative Jair Bolsonaro, is staying away. On Thursday, he declared three days of national mourning following the death of world-famous soccer player Pelé, nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
Lula da Silva, 77, leads the Workers’ Party (PT) and won just over half of the vote in October. Opponents of a new mandate for the PT leader suspect fraud. Last week there was a failed bombing and riots in Brasilia leading up to the inauguration.
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Lula da Silva was hugely popular during his first presidency, but the PT lost the trust of most Brazilians under his successor Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached by parliament in 2016. The country has had several major scandals of corruption, for which Lula da Silva also received a sentence and several years in prison. Thanks to a Supreme Court verdict, he was allowed to return politically active in 2021, but he was never acquitted of the facts that put him behind bars in the ‘Lava Jato’ (Car Wash) corruption scandal.
Many of the financial woes in Latin America’s largest economy date back to the years when Roussef’s government was ousted as the country experienced its worst recession since World War II. Lula da Silva is also known as a pragmatic and unifying leader thanks to her first terms, and many hope that she will be able to address current problems.